ROCKY RIVER --
Lutheran West struggled at the plate on Thursday, putting up little resistance to the visiting Brookside Cardinals en route to a 5-0 loss. Senior Nick Gambetta had three of Lutheran West’s four hits.

Freshman Owen Albers was once again the hard-luck loser, taking the loss in his third start of the year. Albers (0-3) threw a complete game, striking out six and only allowing six hits. The freshman has started against the stronger cross divisional teams all year, has posted quality pitching performances and has nothing to show for it.

Albers did, however, run LW out of its only real threat of the day. With no one out in the third and Albers on second, Gambetta singled into center. After Coach Trey Lamb put the brakes on Albers at third, Albers got caught in no man’s land when the throw in from the outfield got away from the Brookside cut-off man. Albers had an inkling to try and score, but after coming down the line he realized that the ball had not gotten away as far as he thought. After Albers was tagged out at the end of the ensuing run down, junior Tommy Walker was called out on strikes and freshman Rory Zakareckis grounded out to short and Gambetta was stranded in scoring position.